February 19, 2015

Selfridges Set to Suit Everyone's Agender

If we
take a trip back to the 1980s, we will discover that the bending of gender
rules is not a new concept. Stars such as David Bowie and Grace Jones dominated
and perhaps even pioneered the open discussion about blurred lines. Fast-forward
to the present day and we have the intriguing androgyny of actress Tilda
Swinton (who inspired Vivienne Westwood’s Autumn/Winter 2014 womenswear
collection), singer Janelle Monáe, and model Andreja (formerly Andrej) Pejić.

For
example, Pejić was born a male, but went on to model women’s and men’s clothing (both beautifully, might
I add). Pejić, curlers in hair, posed removing a white shirt on the 2011 cover
of Dossier Journal. U.S. bookstores
Barnes & Noble and Borders feared that their customers would view Pejić as
a topless woman, which resulted in shielding the image with an opaque sleeve. Pejić,
who previously reported living “in between genders,” underwent sex reassignment
surgery to become a woman in 2014.

Some
people might argue that, in the year 2015, we are in a more enlightened and
accepting age than ever before in terms of gender identity. It is indeed true
that the times, they are a-changin’. A year ago, Facebook traded in the “male”
and “female” gender options for a more inclusive 56-item list to choose from,
such as: bigender, cisgender, gender fluid, genderqueer, pangender,
transgender, transsexual etc. If you don’t know what any of those mean, I
highly recommend that you look them up (I definitely had some researching to do)!

The word
on the street is that Selfridges department store, located in the heart of
London’s Oxford Circus, will be dedicating three of its four floors to a
gender-neutral shopping space called Agender. Grace Jones, eat your heart out. The
Manchester and Birmingham Selfridges outlets, as well as the official
Selfridges website, will also be jumping on board. The takeover will be
implemented come March 1st until the end of April.

The next
kicker is that the new gender-neutral revamp will also apply to mannequins,
beauty products, and accessories. Instead of traditional male and female
mannequins, the department store’s windows will be given a non-gender-specific
makeover. Photography, film, music, and design pieces delving into the concept
of gender will additionally be featured in-store and on the Selfridges website.

A previous KTZ design (left) and a creation from Hood by Air during this month's New York Fashion Week (right), photos courtesy of The Daily Mail and The New York Times

Interior
and furniture designer Faye Toogood will be responsible for bringing the
concept spaces to life. Expect to see brands such as KTZ, Trapstar, and Hood by
Air. I predict that BOY LONDON will stay sitting pretty as it watches the
newcomers encroach on its already well-established unisex territory. Toogood’s
ready-to-wear collection, a capsule collection by Bodymap, Nicola Formichetti’s
collection Nicopanda, a collection from footwear brand Underground, and Rad
Hourani’s made-to-order couture designs are all set to make an appearance. You
will also be able to feast your eyes on designs by labels including Ann Demeulemeester,
Comme des Garçons, Meadham Kirchhoff, and Gareth Pugh.

Gucci’s
Autumn/Winter 2015 collection saw the emergence of women walking the menswear
runways, while Acne’s male models donned feminist scarves with empowering
phrases: “Woman Power,” “Radical Feminist,” “Gender Equality.” Cos and Gap have
noted the upsurge of menswear purchases by women, while men have gravitated towards
buying women’s knitwear. As if we needed further proof, this month’s New York
Fashion Week has shown that the next big trend to adopt comes in the form of a
gender shakeup.

In Sweden,
a toy catalog challenged gender stereotypes with images of a boy in a Spiderman
outfit pushing a pink stroller and a girl wearing denim riding a yellow
tractor. In 2012, the gender-neutral personal pronoun hen was added to the online version of Sweden’s National Encylopedia as an alternative
to the Swedish han (he) and hon (she). In the United States last
year, an employee who wished to be identified by a gender-neutral pronoun sued
her company for $518,000 when coworkers insisted on using female pronouns.

Leklust, a Swedish toy company, proposed a gender role reversal in one of their catalogs, photo courtesy of Leklust

Where you
draw the line on the gender-neutral discussion is a matter of opinion, but soon
Selfridges will be forcing the conversation out into the open. The fact that
the high-end department store is backing such a revolutionary implementation
speaks volumes. Perhaps Selfridges could act as the catalyst for some major
changes to occur as it tests the cultural norms of our society.

A
Selfridges spokesperson told The Times,
“We want to take our
customers on a journey where they can shop and dress without limitations or
stereotypes…a space where clothing is no longer imbued with directive gender
values, enabling fashion to exist as a purer expression of ‘self.’” This
powerful statement is hopefully a foreshadowing of a new wave of fashion to
follow suit, where boundaries are jagged and edges are fuzzy. Lines will be
crossed and that’s okay. Fashion is meant to be controversial, a talking point.
Life isn’t always black and white, so it’s about time we made room for the
gray.

Female,
male, or anything in between…it doesn’t really matter. All I know is that never before have you
been given a better excuse to steal your boyfriend or girlfriend’s shirt and
absolutely rock it. Browse
the Selfridges website here.